Smoking While Wearing Invisalign

Smoking and Invisalign are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but smoking can complicate your efforts at a discreet, healthy orthodontic process. Furthermore, recommended steps to keep Invisalign aligners clear may make smoking during treatment impractical. Here is more about this topic if you are a smoker considering Invisalign.

Tar-Stained Aligners

Cigarette tar is notorious for turning teeth a gray-yellow color. However, whitening products and procedures that work to whiten teeth stained by tobacco products will not work on aligners. Invisalign has designed its aligners to resist stains, but the plastic is not entirely stain-proof. This means that you should avoid smoking while wearing your aligners if you want to enjoy the virtual invisibility for which this treatment is known.

Removing Aligners to Smoke

Patients are advised to remove their aligners before eating or drinking anything other than water during treatment. The same can be recommended when it comes to smoking, but this may cause problems depending on how often you smoke. It is important to note that Invisalign must be worn for a minimum of at least twenty-two hours per day, and much of this time should be spent wearing the aligners continuously. Taking the aligners out frequently will prevent this, and your treatment results may be affected.

Smoking while wearing Invisalign can cause discolored aligners, but removing the aligners to smoke is also not ideal. Reducing or quitting smoking altogether will support the best results from Invisalign while also helping to keep the aligners clear. At a consultation with our Invisalign dentist, you can learn more about issues with smoking during this treatment.